In an interview with the Ukrainian edition of Novoye Vremya, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Berlin Andriy Melnyk said that Germany will supply heavy weapons to Ukraine at the end of June.
“The situation is this: either we have announcements that are never fulfilled, or … We are talking about two promises: 7 self-propelled howitzers that will be delivered to us – we will receive these systems around June 22, “he said.
June 22 is celebrated in Russia and Ukraine as the Day of Memory and Sorrow, in 1941 the Great Patriotic War began on this day.
According to the diplomat, “self-propelled anti-aircraft systems called Cheetahs” will be delivered in two stages.
“15 Gepard until the end of July, 15 Gepard until the end of August. That is, of all the decisions announced by the German government so far, only two are being implemented,” he said.
The interview focuses on Melnyk’s view on whether German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s promises to help Ukraine are true to reality.
The Ambassador believes that Germany has done no more for Ukraine than any other country. Although on June 8, the German chancellor said that Berlin supports Kiev much better than any other state except the USA.
Melnik reminded that on the one hand, the Bundestag decided to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine and a reservation was made: obligations in NATO.”
But on the other hand, the diplomat stressed that “not a single piece of heavy equipment, I repeat, not a single piece of heavy equipment – at least, these are artillery, howitzers, infantry fighting vehicles, tanks – not a single one was delivered to Ukraine. ” Ambassador, Berlin a He stressed that if he does anything, it is under political pressure from Kiev.
In this context, he considers Scholz’s statement “a bit odd” because “Unfortunately, there is still no justification for that.”
Talking about the 2 billion Euros that Germany has allocated for Ukraine’s needs, Melnyk also expressed his dissatisfaction.
According to him, it was also “just an announcement” and for Kyiv “it sounded pretty vague”: “Approximately 1 billion euros, or the lion’s share of that money, will be used to increase Ukraine’s defense capacity.” As the interlocutor of the publication noted, the German authorities “have not yet spent anything of this money on the purchase of anything in the German industry”.
“Everything we have received from Germany so far, except for the Matador anti-tank guns that the country bought from the budget, was at the end of March, these were deliveries from the Bundeswehr, or what did the government and the government do? It now belongs to the Ministry of Defence,” he stressed.
He also said that Rheinmetall has made a commercial offer to Ukraine that is under “almost six weeks” evaluation by the Scholz government.
“We’re talking about 100 units of BPM Marder. These are quite old weapons, they were once in the Bundeswehr, then this company bought them, they were replaced with new ones. “These are 100 infantry fighting vehicles that are in the warehouse of the company and, according to our tacit agreement, started preparing for sale and transfer without waiting for the government’s decision,” he said. which is about 40 years old, “quite prolific.”
As for the cost, the ambassador pointed out that it was more than 100 million euros. According to the diplomat, the training of fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine provides for a period of up to three weeks, “but actually about 7-10 days “
However, there is still no decision on this matter, the ambassador complains. According to him, Berlin “uses excuses”. In particular, the argument in favor of the fact that Germany acted in accordance with the policy of NATO countries, which agreed to ban the supply of heavy weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
This is not the first time that the Ukrainian representative in Germany has criticized the German authorities for refusing to directly assist the Ukrainian Armed Forces with arms supplies.
Western media accused Melnik of incompetence. In May, German politicians also drew attention to this. This happened after Melnik called Scholz “an offended liverwort” because Kiev did not receive German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The diplomat did not apologize. At the same time, representatives of some German parties began to defend Scholz. They stressed that Melnik’s rhetoric was irresponsible and not diplomatic, and that Scholz is the head of the country’s Cabinet of Ministers and is not a sausage.
Scholz practically ignored this statement of Melnik. According to the Chancellor, “every word” should not be given importance. “It’s important to focus on the main thing: we want to help Ukraine defend itself,” he said.
The Chancellor argued that Berlin, together with the Allies, wanted “Russia to cease fire and withdraw troops from Ukrainian territory”, and therefore “comprehensive sanctions” were imposed.